Why do the reading strands have some of the same skills in each grade? For example, in the Creative Fiction strand, each grade (level of text complexity) has the skills "Main Idea" and"Interaction of Literary Elements".

Answer

While the skill name may not change across grades, the expression of that skill is different - it becomes more complex as grade level increases. These differences are called skill descriptors. You can see in the Skills Framework for Reading each skill and the associated skill descriptors for each grade level of complexity. For a specific example, the list below shows some skill descriptors for "Interaction of Literary Elements" and how they change as the level of text complexity increases:

Grade 1: Identify details about characters.

Grade 2: Understand how characters respond to major events in a passage.

Grade 3: Describe reasons for characters' actions in a passage.

Grade 4: Use details from a passage to describe a character.

Grade 5: Use details to show similarities or differences between two characters in a passage.

Grade 6: Understand how characters develop over the course of the passage.

Grade 7: Understand how a setting affects characters.

Grade 8: Understand how dialogue helps reveal characters' traits.

Where can I see my student's status for each skill and skill descriptor?

On the Class Dashboard:

Select the Class Dashboard tab.

Using the menus at the top, select the class, subject, and strand.

The Heat Map should appear. Above the list of student names, select Skill View to view the students' status in each skill.

On the Student Progress tab:

Select the Student Progress tab.

Using the menus at the top, select the class, subject, and strand.

The student's progress graph should appear. The list of skills and the student's status for each skill in the student's initial instructional grade level through their goal grade level appear on the left.